Facebook spotted to be testing a gender inclusive category on its dating app | Tech Industry
Facebook in August was seen to be internally testing a dating app which seemed to compete with the likes of Tinder and Bumble.
Facebook Dating was first announced at F8 2018.
A new update has been discovered now. Facebook seems to have added a number of options in its gender section. It has the option of Woman, Trans Woman, Man, Trans Man and something peculiar called ‘Non-Binary and/or Two-spirit’. This move, if true, shows Facebook Dating’s inclusivity of all genders.
Facebook Dating’s Non-binary option will double as for Two-spirit ????️????
previously: https://t.co/7ZRsq7W5La pic.twitter.com/Qd90v44WPr
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 26, 2018
According to the gender the user identifies with, Facebook Dating is said to be suggesting matches to the people who want to be involved with that particular gender. The gender option won’t be displayed on the dating profile though as per the leaked image.
Also, if the user wishes to describe their gender at length, Facebook Dating is said to give an option of doing so in the introduction section. This bit of information has been discovered by Jane Manchun Wong and has been posted on Twitter. The testing of the app had slowly begun with employees in which they had to use fake profiles through which they could test the user interface of the app as well as look for any possible bugs. They were asked to delete all of this data before the public launch. The evidence for this app was also found by Jane Manchun Wong which she had posted on Twitter.
Facebook is internally testing Facebook Dating. I can’t go past the signup screen because they are not activating all non-employee Dating profiles because, well, it’s “pre-launch” ???? pic.twitter.com/VQFHUJIkuX — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 3, 2018
The social media giant later confirmed the dating product to be in testing within the main Facebook app but declined to comment further.
“This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships and not just for hookups,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during his keynote at the F8 developer conference.
“We have designed this with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning. Your friends aren’t going to see your profile, and you’re only going to be suggested to people who are not your friends,” he added.
Then in September, the dating app was seen to be being tested in Colombia. Facebook Dating was said to be available within the social networking company’s mobile app and isn’t available for desktop users as of now.
It is currently available to users 18 and above, free of cost, and doesn’t include any advertisements or premium features.
Disclaimers: Includes inputs from IANS